Infamous calls
Rome appreciates good calls, but often he will receive a call that is less than acceptable. However, some infamous calls have gained a life of their own, being frequently referenced by listeners and reset by Rome. Some of these calls include: *'Jeff in C-Bus' - Early in the show of November 18, 2005, on his way to the annual Michigan & Ohio State game, this former Smack-Off contestant declared that Ohio State would win by a score of 27-27. This was believed to be a slip of the tongue, but Jeff (and Ohio State) became the butt of numerous jokes throughout the rest of that day's show. (The Buckeyes got the last laugh, however, winning 25-21.) The following Monday, Jeff called back and claimed that he purposely made his strange call to draw attention away from the game itself, luring the Clones to smack him instead of Ohio State. Despite this, Jeff is still ridiculed by the Clones and by Rome himself, who often replays Jeff's 27-27 prediction. *'Patty in Modesto' - She called the show in June 2000, but was too inebriated to have an intelligent conversation. Despite the one phone call, she is still referenced as a watermark for drunkenness to this day. *'Alex in Louisville' - In February 2004, he called in to congratulate Rome on a great interview with NFL player and University of Louisville alum Deion Branch, unaware that the interview had not actually taken place. Rome, knowing that the interview was scheduled for the following hour, asked Alex first if he had heard the interview, and Alex replied "absolutely." After Rome then asked him what he liked best about it, Alex offered a broad statement that "he was just a classy guy." When Rome pushed further for specifics, Alex claimed that he was out job-hunting and had missed most of the interview. Rome then informed him that the reason that he couldn't remember anything from the interview was because "the interview hasn't happened yet!" The show later ended with Branch not calling in at all. *'George in Tampa' - On August 29, 2007, Rome went to a caller, but the caller, named George, was unaware he was on-air. Through the phone, Rome and the listeners heard his entire conversation with woman which Rome deduced was a sales pitch for Omaha Steaks. Rather than running the call, Rome kept it on-air, and commented on his diligence as a salesman, which is a common reset on the program (see "Sales Guy" above). George eventually picked up, and when Rome informed him he had been on-air, George while surprised, was unfettered, and immediately went into a smack-filled take. Rome attempted to derail the call by asking to hear the sales pitch but claim he was a vegetarian. To Rome's (and the Clones') delight, George without hesitation, warded off the diversion insisting he had a "50 pound carrot" in his trunk and finished the take. *'John and Trapper's Tandem Call' - In December 2000, days before Christmas, John in C-Town and Trapper in Dana Point once called the show from the same house, spending most of the call insulting each other. The two were heavily criticized by the Clones, and the call has since become a reference for gay jokes on the show. Perhaps for this reason and perhaps for others, John repented of the encounter with Trapper, and made Trapper the major subject of his 2001 Smack-Off call, which led to him being run, as admitted by Rome. *'Toby in Houston' - In June 2005, he called in to talk about a supposed encounter he had with NBA coach Larry Brown in a gymnasium, saying "...Foot away from my face, dropped his towel. I look over and there's a crank right in my face...Larry Brown." Toby was immediately run, but the call was enough to derail the whole show and eventually won the Huge Call of the Day, much to Rome's chagrin. Due to the total absurdity of the call, Rome has admitted that this was one of the few times he was rattled on the air. It didn't help that it came on the heels of several e-mails that insulted Marlon Brando, who had just died. Today the call is often reset when a caller gives unnecessary or out of line information during a call. *'Callers who don't get the joke' - After Rome made a sarcastic remark about how he would love to have a daughter enter the porn industry, caller Bill in Syracuse chastised Rome, believing him to be serious. Since then, Bill has been associated with any caller or emailer who takes a sarcastic stance of Rome's seriously. Another caller, Tony in Cleveland, fell into this trap by taking Rome's Cockfighting Across America Foundation seriously. Yet another caller is often reset because he didn't get it when Rome compared Glen Rice to Tony Gwynn. *'Fabian in L.A.' - This caller is often referred to as "Flamian" because he promised to have an epic phone call, only to end up "flaming out" in spectacular fashion." Before he could get through the first sentence of his take, he completely lost his train of thought, then said "oh man...okay, okay-" just before getting run. Since then, callers who lose their train of thought frequently end their calls by saying that they are "flaming" and bowing out. *'Jim in Fall River' - Jim has participated in several Smack-Offs, but during one Smack-Off call, he became extremely animated and agitated, to the point of actually shouting out his call. Also, shortly after he started his call, a strange sound similar to a donkey braying could be heard in the background. Despite Rome's efforts to get his attention, he continued to shout his take and the animal sound persisted until the call was run. Since then, Jim has been associated with bestiality, and cemented that bad reputation at the 2004 Smack-Off by getting run for an extremely crude sexual smack involving "his donkey." However, Rome has recently commented that Jim in Fall River's take on Yankees' pitcher Andy Petitte's trademark "glare" was one of the most legendary takes in the history of the show. *'"Smack Attack" in Wisconsin' - This caller was on hold for over an hour, and when his turn finally came up to speak with Rome, he yelled into the phone, "AAAHHHHH...my phone bill!" then hung up. The call is mostly remembered because Rome blames that incident for some of his hearing loss. *'Jim Harbaugh' - Harbaugh, at the time quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, was invited to participate in the 1998 Smack-Off. The Clones considered his call lackluster and pedestrian, but he was not run. *'Iggy in Springfield' - In August 2003 this long-time caller called the program, greeted Rome, then started a prerecorded tape of his take. The sound of a tape player being turned on was clearly recognizable, along with the significant difference in sound quality. He was quickly run, and has not called the show since then. Rome has since speculated on how many of Iggy's prior calls were also prerecorded. In reference to Iggy, callers occasionally announce the local time before starting their take to prove it is not prerecorded. *'Pancho & Tyrone' - During one show, a caller claimed to be an African American named Pancho. Rome doubted this, but let the caller go through. A few minutes later, another caller said, in a stereotypical Spanish accent, "Jim, eff he can be Pancho, why can't I be Tyrone?" This is often cited as an example of a caller fooling the phone screener. *'Jason in Ottawa' - This caller said that he once went to a party with "a lot of booze, a lot of bud", and he said he said "if I have to rape a girl to get her into bed, it's not worth it." He was quickly run, and is considered one of the worst takes ever. *'Tim in Bend' - Normally, Rome does not spend a lot of time ranting about bad calls. However, Tim's call in December 2004 was a notable exception, as Tim brought the show to a halt with a brief call in which he offered a sarcastic thank-you to Rome for an interview he didn't have on the show, and a subsequent insult about Drew Brees' moles. This was enough to send Rome on a six-minute rant. *'Guy Who Had to Eat Lunch with His Wife/Go to a Meeting' - During the summer of 2005, a caller told call screener J-Stew that he had to get on the show because he had to eat lunch with his wife. Rome led into the call saying that if a Clone needed to eat lunch with his wife, that he (Rome) would have his back. However, the caller was run before he could even start his take, and Rome said, "With that kind of lead-in, why would you even stay on the line? You might as well hang up and bail out and avoid ridicule." Rome has also received calls from someone asking to get on the show before a meeting at the caller's workplace is scheduled to begin, and has handled these calls in the exact same fashion, following up with a tirade about how Clones should put their work first and not worry about calling in to a radio show. On June 1, 2009, Lucas in C-Town had to decline when he was put on the phones because he was too busy eating cantaulope. *'Jerome in Nashville' - On July 26, 2005, the term BOHICA was coined in a call complaining about Cleveland having no right to talk smack, and claimed Boston was now the City of Champions. The term means "Bend Over, Here It Comes Again". He went out too quick to get run. *'Joey in New Bedford' - On October 27, 2005 he came into the Jungle with a new word, "recepted," believed to be a hybrid of "received" and "accepted." Rome interrupted the call after five minutes of Joey's rants and said he finally "came to" after hearing Joey's language. Although Rome insisted that "recepted" is not an actual word, some have speculated that it may be either some form of Cape Verdean slang or simply a "Chowd" affectation. Joey is an administrator at Stucknut.com where he has his own bowling forum. *'T.J. in Jacksonville' - During a fall 2005 call, T.J. laughed at his own joke, with a "creepy"-sounding "Eh-HEH-heh-HEH-huh!" which became known in the Jungle as "The Laugh." This soundbite is occasionally used to sarcastically emphasize a poor joke, and is one of several soundbites which gets repeated play for comedic effect (see below). He also called Jason Stewart "Jason Stevens." *'Tobin in Chapel Hill' - Tobin has a history of getting run for saying stupid things. The absolute worst example comes on November 3, 2005, when he tripped up in the middle of a call so badly that Rome had no choice but to run him. To this day nobody knows what he was trying to say, but the words "contrast" and "quality" were somehow involved. *'Gary in Vegas' - On April 6, 2006, he told Rome that he did not want to talk about "steroids, or whose mother has cancer" (a reference to then-13-year-old golfer Dakoda Dowd and her mother, a topic on the show that day), and that he had an actual sports take. He went on to proclaim that the Devil Rays' pitching was awful and that the Orioles would beat them that evening, then said, "Rack me!", only to be immediately run. Rome labeled this call as one of the worst ever. Ironically, or perhaps due to "Jungle Karma," the Devil Rays beat the Orioles that night on the strength of a three-hit, complete game 2-0 shutout by pitcher Mark Hendrickson. *'Brad in Detroit' - A few days before the 2005 MLB All-Star Game, Brad called in to rant about Cal Ripken, Jr., claiming that Ripken's Iron Man streak was a "stupid, overrated record," that Ripken was "never good," and that he would pay a million dollars to spray Ripken in the face with a full mace can. In the following weeks, several calls and emails made fun of "Brad in Detroit's lispy voice" and referred to him as "Brandy in Detroit," hinting that he may be gay. Callers also mocked his reference to using mace, traditionally a weapon used by women for self-defense purposes. Rome sometimes resets the call to mock Brad, refusing to believe that he actually meant what he said. Brad has not called the show since. *'Tommy in Detroit' - On April 24, 2006, he attempted to land an invitation to Smack-Off 2006 with a call that became memorable less for its content than for the "OORF!" sound he repeatedly made instead of the usual "ERRRRR!" used by Rome and the Clones as a deliberate self-correction. Rome had Tommy run because of this, but was very amused by the call and played up the "walrus sound" (as he dubbed it) in the same fashion as "The Laugh." The call even won the Huge Call of the Day. Rome requested that all Clones now begin their calls by making the "walrus sound" instead of clichés such as "first time, long time." This didn't last much past the next show, however, as Rome complained that doing the sound repeatedly was wrecking his voice. Tommy was eventually invited to the 2006 Smack-Off. Tommy returned on March 17, 2009, to take a run at Chad in Portland, limiting his walrus sound to the very end. *'Marty in NoCal' - This caller said that he was a trucker and that he had a buddy with him every day in his truck, and that his buddy was Rome. Marty's comments were appreciated by Rome but were widely perceived as being overly sentimental and cheesy by the Clones, and since then Marty has been a constant source of ridicule in calls and emails, many of which depict Rome and Marty in relationships of one form or another. (However, many listeners have called in to echo Marty's sentiment and support him.) Rome placed a moratorium on references to Marty on June 5, 2007, following an email signoff featuring "War Marty chartering a flight so he and Jim can join the mile high club." *'Julie in Palm Springs' - Julie called on June 19, 2007, and berated Rome (and sports media in general) for a failure to cover positive news stories in sports. Rome and the Clones expressed confusion over her position, the rambling nature of her call, and misuse of the term "hypocritical." Julie has since been a target of ridicule from the Clones, especially when a positive story is covered on the show. On July 30, 2007, Julie called the show again, earning admiration from Rome for returning. After her comments about Michael Vick, and reflecting on her previous call, her experience was compared to Curtis Martin's "positive calls only" incident (see "Keeping things positive" above). *'Lavelle in Oakland' - On July 18, 2007, Lavelle accused Rome of racism in his analysis of the Michael Vick dog fighting scandal simply because Rome had never talked about how bad dog fighting was before. He said this was just sports journalism's "chance to get back at the 'rich black athlete'". Greg in Vegas called Lavelle's take "the worst take in Jungle history", surpassing even Brad in Detroit wanting to mace Cal Ripken. *'Carl in Rosemead' - On October 5, 2007, Carl called Rome and said that LeBron James wearing a New York Yankees hat to a Cleveland Indians playoff game was as bad an idea as "going to a party with a boner in sweatpants". He was immediately run. He is frequently warred in calls and e-mails about bad ideas. *'Mike in Wichita' - After a year and a half of getting bested in his clone-on-clone feud with Chad in Portland, including several instances of getting run, Mike got his quickest run when he called on March 31, 2009, and suggested that Chad was "hitting the trees harder than Natasha Richardson". The crack almost cost Mike a shot at the 2009 Smack-Off. *'Brendan in Wilmington' - Brendan was once a regular in the Smack-Off, but was blocked on April 23, 2009, for using a stereotypical impression of Tracy McGrady and cracking on his lazy eye. Rome told him that not only was he off the bubble for the 2009 Smack-Off, but he should stop calling for a while, though stopped short of banning him. *'Vinny Mac in Des Moines' - In May of 2009 shortly after the 2009 Smackoff, Vinny Mac called and after taking a good game off air to Jason Stewart, Vinny Mac's on air call consisted of calling other clones "double talking jive turkeys" and that they were about to get their "asses rag-dolled" all while stumbling and breathing heavily throughout the entire take. In addtion Vinny Mac claimed that he was "the bottle on the top shelf" and was shortly run therafter for not being ready to perform on the air. Vinny Mac is now considered the new standard for flaming in the jungle. Banned callers It is extremely rare for a Clone to have a call that is so offensive that it prompts Rome to request that they never call the show again. Indeed, there are only four callers that have received that level of infamy. *'Willie in K.C.' - Willie was a regular caller in the early 2000s who often broke into song parodies during his calls, including the oft-reset "Cablinasian the Friendly Ghost" smack on Sean the Cablinasian. He was also a top-10 caller in the 2003 Smack-Off, and was known for his hatred of anything St. Louis, which he called "St. Louise". Willie was permanently banned from the show after one call contained obvious and crude anti-Semitic references. After the call was run, it was obvious that Rome (who is, incidentally, of Jewish descent himself) was infuriated, even after a rebound call from Silk, who started his call pleading that it was Willie, not himself, that made the references. Willie's call became the topic of the show, with other Clones denouncing him, including Jeff "bumping around on a car phone" in Phoenix (also Jewish) and Dark Gable, an old-school email legend. In 2004, Willie attempted to be reinstated to the Jungle by calling the show to apologize for making the offensive remarks. As soon as he completed his short apology (which many listeners considered contrived) he attempted to stage one of his calls, at which time Rome cut him off. Rome allowed the remainder of the day's callers and emailers to vote on the matter, and the decision was made to uphold the ban. Mike in Wichita has frequently championed Willie's reinstatement. *'Marty in Dallas' - In the wake of the Dallas Mavericks signing center Wang Zhizhi in 2001, he fired off a barrage of indecipherable, stereotypical "Engrish" gibberish and was immediately run. In another call in 2001, he claimed that Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki had held a press conference to explain why he had "Ichiro" on the back of his jersey. He then proceeded to mimic the supposed press conference with more "Engrish" and was run again, with Rome telling him never to call again and chewing out J-Stew on-air for letting him on the second time. Emailers still frequently sign any approval-of-racism message with "Marty in Dallas." *'Ray in K.C.' - Ray is infamous for a particularly homophobic "take" regarding homosexuals in sports, in which he declared that he would not take his sons to any more baseball games or let them watch games on TV to keep them from seeing "big old gay guys prancing around" at the ballpark. Rome immediately ran him and effectively banned him from the program. Clones still occasionally send in "Ray in K.C." emails mocking Ray's infamous call. *'Mike in K.C.'- Mike is known for making an racially insensitive call in August of 2004 when he referred to Chicago and St.Louis to having " More black people than a tarzan flick" he was immediately run and was told to never to call the show again. He is mentioned along with Marty in Dallas and Willie in K.C. when someone makes a racially insensitive remark and Kansas City was sometimes glossed by clones as KKK.C. (referring to the notorious KKK group).